Dispelling Myths about Black Lives Matter

Dispelling Myths about Black Lives Matter

After my last video, I received many messages and comments. Many of them were messages of support (in fact that video has become one of my most shared videos ever), but I also got several messages providing criticisms of the Black Lives Matter movement. I do not think any movement is immune from criticism, and BLM is no exception, but I noticed that many of the common criticisms were based on misconceptions and cherry picked examples, rather than reflecting a the true nature of the movement as a whole.

One thing I found particularly disturbing was this enthusiasm with which many criticisms of Black Lives Matter focused around denigrations of black people and the black community. The supposed “violent culture” or “culture of disobedience”, almost as if to subtly imply, “Maybe if you blacks behaved better, cops wouldn’t kill you.” It’s hard to bring up the police killings of black people without at least a couple people responding with “well what about black on black crime?” as if that’s at all relevant. It all sounded too close to justifications for the murder of black people.

I don’t get too much into those types of criticisms in this video, but I do attempt to correct a few of the most frequently cited misconceptions about Black Lives Matter. In general, the idea is to look at the bigger picture and avoid cherry picking isolated examples that confirm you pre-existing biased. That’s dishonest and responsible.